A Merman's Tale
by indecisivepen
Summary: Percy Jackson, Poseidon-blessed son of Sally Jackson, may be playing with fire with these secret meetings with a blond, blue-eyed man who may or may not be the infamous pirate leader, Backbiter.


**A/N:** I've been wanting to post this for a while now. Honestly, I should be cramming for my Science test for tomorrow but well, my hands were itching to write. Thus, this is the result. The setting is AU and was inspired by my affection for mermaids, pirates and medeival times - of course, there's still some factors based on Greek mythology; it wouldn't be the same without them.

*Schmitzia hiscockiana is a small, rare, red seaweed

**Lemanea is a freshwater red alga

***Iris-Message

****warha seaweeds came from my imagination. These are seaweeds that let you breathe underwater when eaten. They can only be plucked by a merman/mermaid.

Hope you enjoy! Polite criticisms are encouraged.

* * *

><p>The pirate ship of Andromeda has been reigning terror throughout the kingdom for four years now. Everyone knows its story: the seamen by the docks grumbles of Andromeda's escapades to anyone who can endure being near their fish-smell; the gossip-mongers crowds in groups near the markets and delivers the stories in loud whispers and dramatic gasps; the mothers and fathers tells the story to their small children at night in raspy tones as to scare them from being careless. Even the thirteen leaders of the kingdom are posting challenges to anyone strong and daring enough to find the pirate leader and eliminate him and his crew from the sacred ground of Mother Gaia.<p>

However, for four long years, no one has yet succeeded in the quest. There has been many challengers, true – seeking glory and fame in exchange for the head of the leader of Andromeda, but no one has come close to returning with a strand of hair or a piece of dead skin. Or worse yet, few have come out both alive and sane after. Even Lord Poseidon, who is known for his control over the seas and oceans, cannot stop the pirate ship from sailing through the waters; if he had the ability, then Lord Poseidon would have struck the ship to smithereens. Of course, this lead to the belief that Backbiter, as the Andromeda's leader has called himself during one of his escapades in Lord Hades' territory, has more power in his body than one can hope for – or something along those line. Some say a lot of things regarding his power but the most popular and most possible theory is that Backbiter has been blessed by the disgraced yet powerful Titans – that he is the last child that the cruel Titans has blessed with gifts before their downfall by the hands of their successors.

This theory then lead to the belief that Backbiter and his crew are there to take revenge for the fallen Titans, as is the job given to him by those cruel men in exchange for power.

The people speculate and speculate but no solid answers are forthcoming. However, most will agree that the stories of Backbiter and his pirate crew are fascinating to tell and hear.

Percy Jackson, though, will beg to differ as he is once again subjected to the rambling of one Annabeth Chase about the infamous Backbiter.

"–crazy, I tell you! A midwife came screaming about a Hermes-blessed child from Cantalloca that the Titans took away in revenge for their inevitable downfall. Lady Athena has to call the guards to–"

Percy stares dazedly at the blue, blue sky – Lord Zeus seems to be content today – as he lies on the sea shore with his upper back on the wet sand while his sea-green tail contents itself in making soft splashes on the water. Water droplets rains down on his face suddenly and he lets out a yelp and turns to the bare-footed girl on the sand next to him.

"Are you even listening to me?" Annabeth says huffily, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Peryc looks slightly apologetic. "Sorry, but really, Annabeth, I don't care much for Backbiter. And it gets tiring hearing you talk obsessively about a terrible man so often."

Annabeth, the poor girl, blushes and looks away, all the while flinging dry sands at Percy's direction. "I'm not obsessed. And just because I talk about him doesn't mean I think his actions are wonderful – he is still a pirate."

"Yeah, yeah." Chest covered in sand, Percy grumbles as he tries to worm his way back to the cool water. He dives inside and comes up again, clean of sand and refreshed. Percy flicks his tail at his friend's direction, eliciting an annoyed shriek from the girl. "Anyway, have you seen Grover? I haven't seen him since yesterday."

"He's visiting Juniper's family but he's coming back tomorrow," the girl replies as she stands up, looking annoyed at her wet shirt and dusting herself off of grains of sand. "Didn't he tell you?"

Percy's eyebrows furrow together, "I think so. I've been busy helping my village prepare for the seaweed festival for tomorrow. Got no time to think of other things other than scavenge for seaweeds for decorations and then putting them up all over the village."

"Is that really time-consuming?"

"Well, of course, which seaweed goes where is very important. It'd be a disgrace for us merpeople if we don't know that the red hiscockiana* goes along better with the green lemanea**," Percy says, rolling his eyes at the end for better effect.

Annabeth hums and asks, "You think I can come to the festival?"

Percy's sea-green eyes cast a quick glance at the girl then stares thoughtfully at the sea. "Probably," he takes a slight pause before continuing, "Yeah, I think so. You can invite Rachel too and I'll IM*** Nico to see if he and Bianca can come. Some of the mermen are saying Lord Poseidon and his family will be coming, too, so everything's going to be pretty special tomorrow." Percy's tone steadily becomes excited at the prospect of having friends during the festival. He waits expectantly at Annabeth's reply.

Annabeth smiles and nods, "Sure, we'll meet here and be sure to bring enough warha**** seaweeds for us."

Percy nods. "I'll do that!"

Suddenly, a hippocampus breaks through the water surface a few meters away from the shore, startling both Percy and Annabeth. Upon seeing Percy, the hippocampus makes a series of sounds which Percy immediately translates as _Percy, sir; your mother is looking for you._

Percy winces, remembering that he haven't told his mom that he's meeting Annabeth today, and turns to the girl, saying, "I have to go. Mom's looking for me."

Annabeth nods. "Okay. I better go then, too. Bye, seaweed-brain! See you tomorrow!"

"Don't call me that!"

The girl pivots on her heels, goes towards the rock path that leads to the village of Nean. Percy dives inside the water with the hippocampus and swims his way towards north. His village – or is it more appropriate to call it a city for it is rather big – in the ocean is about two and half kilometres away and with Percy being one of the slowest mermen, it'll take at the least twenty-five minutes before the green stone village entrance appears in his line of sight. The hippocampus, seeing the teenager lagging behind slightly, offers a ride but gets refused by a shaking head and thank-you-but-no smile from the teen.

Percy himself is in no hurry to return home. He entertains himself in looking at the sea plants growing on the rocks near him and playing with the school of fish that swims next to him. However after a while, he stops as he catches a looming shadow meters away from him. He stops and stares curiously at the shadow. It must be one of those humongous trading ships he has seen before – he can see the bottom of it slicing through the water surface. He knew they hold many wonderful things – treasures, spices, fabrics, materials – as Percy has the tendency to sneak a peek at passing ships near his village during his free time. When Percy is lucky enough, some of the treasures fall to the water and Percy collects it – not like one little coin or a square fabric missing would do harm. What fine things does this ship have?

Interest now piqued and tail flicking in excitement, he turns to the hippocampus waiting for him. Fortunately, the animal has not seen where Percy's attention has been on. "You can go on ahead," says Percy to the hippocampus who lets out a disagreeing sound, but with a promise of returning as soon as possible from Percy, it nods and swims faster towards North.

As soon as the sea animal is gone, Percy swims towards the surface but as he comes closer, he slows down as to not make a sound as he break through the surface. He raises himself up until only the top of his head and his sea-green eyes can be seen above water. His mouth fells open as he gazes up at the huge ship in front of him, moving closer until he is just a few meters away. From his position, he can see the left side of the ship, as well as the dark sails and the many people aboard the ship. There were a lot of them, differing in races, with dangerous animals, too. Percy wonders if the ship trades animals but a feeling inside of him quickly rejects the idea. The animals ranges from big to gigantic, poisonous- and dangerous-looking. No one would want to buy those types of animals – they are far too dangerous and are seen more in the army than in a household.

Looking at the quarter deck, Percy sees a man leaning on the rails. The man feels quite different from the others on the main deck, and as Percy nears the ship until he can touch the wooden surface with just a stretch of his arm, he notes the regal posture he's in even though he looks to be relaxing. He has flaxen hair, Percy notes too, but the colour of the eyes, which are staring at the sky above him, considering his head is slightly tilted back, he can't see.

Percy hums and, thinking that no one can see him, raises himself up more until most of his upper body is out in the open air. Interest shines in his eyes as he inspects the ship, swimming a bit more to the front for a different point of view. Percy is too busy inspecting the sails to notice that a pair of eyes has noted the young merman.

Feeling uncomfortably dry, Percy dives back to the water and comes up again, dark, wet hair falling into his eyes. Casting his green gaze again on the whole ship, from back to front, Percy jerks back a bit as he meets eyes with the blonde man from earlier. From where he is, at the bottom of the ship, near the quarter deck, the Percy can see the amused smirk that slightly stretches the thin scar on the other's cheek.

For a long while, the two kept their gazes on each other, one surprised and the other interested. Percy feels as though he should be diving back into the water and fleeing – something which unnerves him. He hasn't felt the need to flee before when men in trading ships has seen him near them; in fact, they seem to think that they are lucky upon seeing the usually reserved merpeople appearing when they are in a voyage to somewhere. The men would wave at him and Percy would return it before continuing on.

However, with this blonde man, Percy wishes nothing more than to be surrounded by water at all sides, to cocoon himself among the seaweeds at the bottom of the sea. Yet, he can't move a muscle to do just that, as though the eyes boring into him have power to make him stay still.

A strong breeze wakes Percy up from whatever enchantment he is in and as quickly as he can, he swims back inside the water, feeling the air caress his tail as it momentarily comes up the surface and goes back in. With a bewildered and mildly disturbed expression on his pale face, the brunet swims towards the direction of his village, hands coming up to wrap around his torso. _What in Tartarus was that_, Percy thinks.

On the ship, the blonde man lets out a small chuckle.


End file.
